A
Philadelphia Eagles tailgate party inadvertently kicked off TBJ Gourmet when Bruce Kramer's friends
went wild over the bacon jam and goat cheese-stuffed jalapeño poppers he brought. The bacon jam espe-
cially got extra points. His friends urged him to start selling it.
A software engineer and an entrepreneurial
chef go "all in" to bring bacon jam from tailgate party to
a Front Burner Foodservice Pitch Competition win.
BY JULIE BESONEN
Kramer was an IT consultant and soft-
ware engineer, however, not versed in how
to scale production for a specialty food
business. A friend recommended he take a
tub of his bacon jam to an entrepreneurial
chef, Michael Oraschewsky, whose 65-seat
restaurant, Conshohocken Café, is in a
Philadelphia suburb.
"I came out of the kitchen to try it and it
was absolutely delicious," recalls Oraschewsky,
36. Intrigued at its many possible uses, he
spread it on burgers and added touches of it to
seafood and vegetable dishes. His customers
loved it so much that he and Kramer, 54, were
encouraged to pursue the concept further.
Explaining Bacon Jam
So, what is bacon jam, exactly? For starters,
the labor-intensive process takes six hours
to complete. First, Oraschewsky dices up
locally sourced bacon and boils it in a kettle
until the fat bubbles up and looks like soapy
water. He renders out the fat, saving it for
other uses. Sweet white onions come next,
browning until they caramelize. Then he
adds some apple cider vinegar and brown
sugar, giving it a deep molasses profile.
Experimenting with different varieties at his
restaurant, he threw in red chiles and garlic
or used black pepper bacon, constantly stir-
52 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com
Bruce Kramer and Michael Oraschewsky,
TBJ Gourmet
Bringing Home the Bacon
producer profile
